The United Nations has moved in to prevail on the Kenyan government to rescind its decision to close down all refugee camps in the country as it seeks to repatriate over 400,000 refugees back to their country.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon took it upon himself on Wednesday, May 18, to personally make a phone call to President Uhuru Kenyatta to ask him to hold the decision which Kenya seems to have made and is willing to implement.

In the conversation, Ki Moon is said to have urged the president to consider the Tripartite Agreement signed between Kenya and Somalia and the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) in November, 2013.

A statement by Ki Moon’s spokesperson said that the secretary general expressed UN’s commitment to support Kenya in ensuring that the refugees are taken care of and that they return to their homeland on their own volition.

This comes after Kenya declared that it will be closing the Dadaab and Kakuma refugee camps and all other refugee camps which had become breeding grounds for terrorists and drug traffickers in the country.